Big ball from small words

Yesterday we had a dinner with friends and enjoyed a meal that’s good for your body and brain.

We were talking about democracy and nationalism. How much are we allowed to say and how much do we want to hear? One of us insisted that democracy means right of speech and we have a right to express our “right wing” feelings in public, including Pauline Hanson who allows herself to say comments such as: “Do you want to see terrorism in our streets here? Do you want to see our Australians murdered? And if I’m so wrong and Muslims feel that way, why don’t I have them standing beside me saying, “Yes, we value the Australian way of life. We’re against Islam, against all this.” They don’t come out strong because they can’t do it.”. Or another example about the freedom speech from a representative of Australia (!) in Parliament: “…we feel we have been swamped by Asians”. Interesting….

The second opinion was that democracy does not allow to say abusive words to someone and should not allow to use nationalistic topics, religion, skin colour and similar as part of identification, measurements of citizenship and humanity or political aggression.

One of us felt that any limitation to the right for freedom of speech takes away everybody’s freedom and promotion of democracy. The other felt like such limitation is taking away another person’s freedom in general and is therefore the end of democracy itself.

Well, I’m worried that we once already experienced a Supreme nation in the 1930-40’s which was united by the thought of another nation not deserving to live in their country of Supreme’s. It showed how such a minor fear in the back of the mind of a few loud people can escalate to becoming a general and public opinion; one person’s opinion becomes a political key point.

Simple pleasures never generate a positive momentum. Once a big ball is rolling, it is hard to stop it.